Artwork
An Indian Ladder - Nayas Indians
An Indian Ladder - Nayas Indians is an oil painting by the American Folk Art artist George Catlin. It dates from 1862 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
5 cm in width, with the horizontal orientation suiting a narrative depiction of the Nayas people using their characteristic ladder.
An Indian Ladder - Nayas Indians is executed in oil on card that has been mounted on paperboard, a modest support arrangement typical of Catlin's later, more portable studio practice. The composition is a genre scene measuring 46.3 cm in height by 62.5 cm in width, with the horizontal orientation suiting a narrative depiction of the Nayas people using their characteristic ladder.
Stylistically, the work belongs to Catlin's sustained effort to document Indigenous American life, rendered here in the painterly manner of his oil sketches rather than the highly finished formality of his earlier canvas portraits. The card-and-paperboard support allowed for relatively quick handling while still accommodating the layered oil paint that gives the scene its descriptive detail.
History & Provenance
An Indian Ladder - Nayas Indians was painted by George Catlin in 1879 in oil on card mounted on paperboard. Following Catlin's death in 1872, the work descended to his three daughters, Clara Gregory Catlin, Louise Catlin Kinney, and Elizabeth Wing Catlin. In 1912, the American Museum of Natural History purchased the painting from Elizabeth Wing Catlin.
The museum retained the work until 1959, when it was sold through Kennedy Galleries in New York to Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. Six years later, in 1965, Mellon gave the painting to the National Gallery of Art, where it remains in the collection.
An Indian Ladder - Nayas Indians is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it entered the collection in 1965 as a gift from Mr. Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia. The painting had reached Mellon in 1959, when the American Museum of Natural History sold it through Kennedy Galleries in New York. The museum had acquired it in 1912, purchasing it from Elizabeth Wing Catlin, one of the three daughters of the artist George Catlin to whom the work had descended by inheritance.
No specific inventory or accession number is recorded in the available sources, and no exhibition history beyond this chain of ownership is documented.
Overview
George Catlin’s 1862 work titled An Indian Ladder – Nayas Indians is an oil painting executed on card that has been affixed to a paperboard support. The composition is enclosed within a circular border and depicts a tranquil shoreline where trees line the left side and figures are gathered both on the sand and in the water.
Subject & Meaning
The scene presents a peaceful beach setting inhabited by members of the Nayas tribe, illustrating daily activity rather than a ceremonial event. The inclusion of a ladder, suggested by the title, hints at a practical or symbolic element within the community’s interaction with the coastal environment.
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Artist & collection
Artist
George Catlin ( KAT-lin; July 26, 1796 – December 23, 1872) was an American lawyer, painter, author, and traveler, who specialized in portraits of Native Americans in the American frontier.
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